JPS605039B2 - Drawing reading device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a drawing reading device that can automatically and accurately read drawings consisting of line figures and characters/symbols.

Recently, there has been a demand for drawings consisting of line figures and characters/symbols to be read into a computer or the like and filed. Conventionally, therefore, it has been common practice to take a picture of a line figure and store it in a single image memory, and to input information on characters and symbols accompanying the line figure along with their position information using a paper tape or the like, and to register it in the computer. is being attempted. Naturally, the above-mentioned reading operation requires a lot of effort and a long time, and is also very complicated, and there are many problems in putting it into practical use. Furthermore, even if an attempt is made to simultaneously read the line figures and information on characters and symbols, there is a problem in that it is difficult to distinguish between the two, and it is very difficult to correctly recognize the characters and symbols. The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to simplify, accurately, and automatically read drawings such as electrical circuit drawings and maps consisting of line figures and characters/symbols. The object of the present invention is to provide a figure recognition device that can be easily used and is useful for a drawing filing system.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG.
The aim is to accurately and automatically capture the drawing to be read 3 that describes characters and symbols 2 associated with the image, and as an auxiliary means for this purpose, an area specification method is used to specify the position of the character and symbol area shown in figure b. Drawing 4 is used.

This area designation drawing 4 is made of, for example, tracing paper and has a size corresponding to the drawing 3 to be read, and position marks 5 are placed on this drawing 4 corresponding to the writing areas of the characters/symbols 2. Ru. This position mark 5 is made by coloring the corresponding area in a unique color for each type of character/symbol 2, for example. The work of attaching this position mark 5 is, for example, by superimposing the area designation drawing 4 on the drawing to be read 3, and then moving the area on the drawing to be read 3 where the characters/symbols 2 are marked from above the area specification drawing 4 using a felt tape. This is done by color marking using the same method. FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the apparatus, and the accurate and automatic interpretation of line figures 1 and characters/symbols 2 of the drawing 3 to be read is performed in the following manner.

The line sensor 11 is composed of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements capable of color discrimination, and is composed of, for example, a CCD equipped with three primary color filters. Each image signal of the drawing to be read 3 and the area designated drawing 4 captured by the line sensor 11 is guided to a color information identification circuit 12 and subjected to color information identification. Color information identification by the same circuit 12 is performed by determining to which category the color component of the image signal belongs to a plurality of different colors set in advance, and determining, for example, characters, numbers of symbols 2, kanji, alphabets. etc. The image signal and color identification information outputted from the color information identification circuit 12 are guided to a drawing reading control section 14 or a character recognition control section 15 selectively via gate circuits 13a and 13b. The signals read or recognized as appropriate through these control units 14 and 15 are selectively led to the mask memory 7 or the image memory 18 through second-stage gate circuits 16a and 16b. It is structured as follows. This mask memory 7 is connected to the eroticism identification circuit 12.
The location information indicated by the position mark 5 from the area designation drawing 4 identified by color and the type information of the character/symbol designated by the color are stored. The above information stored in the mask memory 7 is led to the character area control unit 19, and the control unit 19 selectively opens the gate circuits 13a and 13b according to this information, and
It controls the imaging and scanning of the drawing to be read 1 by the line sensor 11. Further, the main controller 20 inputs the operation information of the line sensor 11 and inputs the operation information of the line sensor 11 to the character area control unit 19.
and the operation control mode of the gate circuit 16.
a, 16b, and each memory 17,
It controls writing and reading of 18 signals, respectively. According to the apparatus configured as described above, first, the gate circuits 13a and 16a are opened and the discussion mode of the area designation drawing 4 is set.

In this mode, the image signal of the area designated drawing 4 captured by the line sensor 11 is coded by the color identification circuit 12 according to the color signal. In this encoding, by detecting the position mark 5, a code indicating the detected position coordinates and a character/symbol type code by color identification as the &calendar mark 5 are generated. For example, the coordinates It is output as a code (X.Y) and a red R code representing kanji data. These coded signals pass through the gate circuit 13a and are sequentially written into the mask memory 17 under the control of the drawing reading section 14. As a result, the mask memory 17 stores the designation information for characters and symbols by the position marks 5 attached to the region designation drawing 4 corresponding to the entire area of the drawing to be read 3. After the writing of information to the mask memory 17 is completed in this manner, the gate circuit 16a is closed, and the gate circuit 16b is opened, and the drawing to be read 3 is transferred to the capture mode.

The reading of the drawing by the line sensor 1 in this Kendori mode is carried out in the same way as in the subordinate mode, but at this time, the information regarding the characters and symbols stored in the mask memory 17 is synchronized with the reading of the drawing by the line sensor 11. The data is read out and supplied to the character area control section 19. In this case,
It goes without saying that the drawing to be read 3 and the area designated drawing 4 are, for example, the same size and aligned, and the reading is performed by setting predetermined discussion positions of the drawings 3 and 4. . Therefore, when the information from the mask memory 17 does not indicate the position mark 5, that is, when the discussion position of the read drawing 3 is in the writing area of the line figure 1 other than the writing area of the characters/symbols 2, The gate circuit 13a is opened under the control of the area control section 19, and the image signals captured by the line sensor 11 are guided to the drawing control section 14 and sequentially written into the image memory 18. As a result, the information on the line figure 1 is registered and stored in the image memory 18 as image information. On the other hand, when the information read from the mask memory 17 indicates the position mark 5, the character area control unit 1
Reference numeral 9 connects the gate circuit 13b to the line sensor 11.
The character recognition control unit 15 is guided to the character recognition control unit 15.

The character recognition control section 16 recognizes the image pattern formed by the discussion image signal according to the information indicating the type of the color-coded characters/symbols, converts it into a code, and writes it into the image memory 18. There is. This writing is done in the image memory 18.
In addition to the image information of line figure 1 in the preset area of
The position code may be written together with the encoded signal of the character/symbol 2, or the recognition pattern may be normalized to form a standard pattern and written at the specified position together with the image information of the line figure 1. According to the drawing reading mode of the present device, the character/symbol area on the drawing 3 to be read is simply detected using the position mark 5 colored and specified on the area designation drawing 4, and the area to be read is detected according to the detection result. It becomes possible to read the line figures 1 and the characters/symbols 2 shown in the drawing 3 independently and accurately.

In other words, the character/symbol 2 can be accurately pattern recognized and detected without being mistaken as the line figure 1, so there is no inconvenience of inputting it in a separate system using paper tape or the like as in the past. In addition, complex discrimination between line figures 1 and characters/symbols 2,
In particular, it is not necessary to discriminate from the discussion signal at all, and therefore erroneous reading and complication of reading processing can be prevented. In addition, as shown in the above embodiment, the position marks 5 are color-coded to correspond to the types of characters and symbols, so if you follow the color identification results described above, pattern recognition of characters and symbols can be done very easily.
Moreover, it has the advantage of being able to be performed accurately. Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, by indicating not only the type of character/symbol 2 by color of the position mark 5, but also the inclination of the character/symbol 2, etc., pattern recognition will be made easier. It is also possible to use other green image devices as the line sensor 11 capable of color discrimination, and various methods can be applied to color information discrimination means. Furthermore, the capacity of the image memory 18, pixel accuracy (fineness)
It goes without saying that there are no particular limitations on the above, and they may be determined as appropriate depending on the specifications. In short, the present invention
Various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention. As described in detail above, according to the present invention, color-coded position marks are detected to detect line figures, characters, and characters in the drawing to be read.
It is possible to provide a highly practical drawing reading device that can distinguish between symbols and read them independently and accurately and automatically. The drawing reading device enables effective operation of a drawing filing system, etc., and can greatly contribute to document management.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 1a and 1b are schematic diagrams showing a hekentori drawing and an area designation drawing, respectively.
The figure is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of the device. 1...Line figure, 2...Character/symbol, 3...
...Drawing to be read, 4... Area specification drawing, 5... Position mark, 11... Line sensor, 12...
Color information identification circuit, 13a, 13b, 16a, 16b...
... Gate circuit, 14 ... Drawing reading control section, 15 ... Character recognition control section, 17 ... Mask memory, 18 ... Image memory, 19・・・・・・
...Character area control unit, 20...Main control device. Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A color-distinguishable line sensor for reading a drawing to be read and an area designation drawing in which areas corresponding to characters and symbols written on the drawing to be read are classified by color; a mask memory that detects and stores at least the position of each colored area read from a designated drawing; and a mask memory that detects and stores at least the position of a color-coded area read from a designated drawing; What is claimed is: 1. A drawing reading device comprising means for independently reading character and symbol information. 2. The drawing reading method according to claim 1, wherein the mask memory stores positional information of the color-coded areas as well as information on the types of characters and symbols identified by the colors of the color-coded areas. Device.